00:00How do you see that affecting Malaysia's economy and our economic outlook? Are you going to
00:09be revising the forecast? And how do you think it would affect the region as well?
00:16The government is going through the process. MITI has been tasked to evaluate and put our
00:28strategy forward and streamline all ministries' response to it. So I think I leave that to MITI
00:39in terms of what exactly is our official response. Some, if we need to respond, I suppose we have to
00:50wait and see. But clearly, internally, the government has a strategy that we will have
00:56to adhere to. And we'll take cue from MITI. As far as the economic growth outlook is concerned,
01:07there is no discussion now on revision. So I think, again, we'll take cue collectively.
01:15And usually economic outlook is only finalised and shared closer to the budget. So I think,
01:30whatever it is, I think we'll leave that to Bank Negara and Ministry of Finance and we'll work
01:38together. But normally, as a matter of practice, we'll share the government's growth outlook in
01:47time for the budget, unless something really drastic happens. I think we have to navigate
01:58the volatility. We've seen on Ringgit, for example, we've seen Ringgit actually strengthen
02:06in the last one week or so. And it's very much the function of the market. Because of the evolving
02:19and developing nature of the trade war that is happening now, the market will price what they
02:29expect will happen. And every speculation, every projection that they price into their position
02:41in the market will definitely affect Ringgit, either by strengthening dollar or not. So I think
02:51that is given that we will go through some, we have to navigate some changes and volatility,
03:00I hope it's not going to be extreme. But to me, the good thing is that, at least in the last one
03:10month, the optimism for the medium and long term growth prospect of Malaysia has not changed. And
03:21the what is happening in the market as a result of the trade war, I think it's something that
03:30the market will find a way to factor everything and price everything in due time. And eventually,
03:40it will come back to the value proposition that the Malaysian economy can propose to the world.
03:48On that note, I think some of the hypothesis that had resulted in a lot of interest in Malaysian
04:00economy for the last one year or so have not changed. The projection that the world is going
04:11to be more digital and AI is going to be mainstream, that has not changed. And with that, that means
04:17that demand for chips will go up. And that will bolster Malaysia's trade. The fact that we need
04:26to manage climate change, and we have to find a good equilibrium point for sustainable energy in
04:38the future, that has not changed. So a lot of our economic plans have been built around long term
04:49mega trends. And the mega trends have not changed. If anything, in fact, it may favour us. More and
05:00more corporations around the world and economies around the world will pay more attention to
05:06building more resilient global supply chain. And our long term plan is to make sure that Malaysia
05:16plays a pivotal role in that global supply chain. That has not changed either. So I'm not saying
05:23that it doesn't affect Malaysia, it affects everyone. But I think it's going to be a
05:32permanent feature in the global economy as you have more and more economies that are
05:40influential in the overall global supply chain, that we have to go through some adjustments and
05:48volatility. But it's just a matter of whether it's going to be short, whether it's going to
05:54be medium term, and eventually the market will price in everything provided that our fundamental
06:00growth narrative is strong. And at the moment, I think we are still very strong in terms of our
06:09future value proposition to the world.
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